Escarole and Bean Soup: A Tutorial

A lot of non-Italians might be asking:  "What is escarole?"  Well, it's related to chicory and looks like this.  Looks kinda like lettuce, but it certainly doesn't taste like it.  It's a bitter green, in my mind, comparable to kale or collards.  We live in Virginia, and escarole isn't the easiest thing to find.  Collards are in abundance in the regular grocery store, but escarole is harder to hunt down.  I found this bunch at a locally owned natural food store, Ellwood Thompson's.  And this escarole was local to boot, grown right in Henrico County!

A popular Italian American dish is escarole and beans.  I decided to try my hand at making an escarole and bean soup.  It's really healthy, easily modified to your tastes, and simple to make with few ingredients.

Ingredients:

A head of escarole
1/2 an onion (red, white, yellow...doesn't matter really)
a few cloves of garlic
1 can of cannellini beans (or great northern beans)
4 cups of chicken stock (I used a box of low sodium, organic, but use what you like, homemade is best!)
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper (optional)
olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Step 1:  Clean your escarole.  Isn't it pretty?!  Just chop off the bottom and rinse really well.  Use a salad spinner if you have one, to get most of the moisture off.  Just treat it like you would lettuce.

Step 2:  Chop your onion and garlic.  Honestly, the onion is optional, I just happen to like the extra flavor.  You could use extra garlic if you want.  I use a LOT of both.  I coarse chopped the garlic, and the onion could have probably been sliced a little thinner in retrospect.

My husband felt that I should remind you of the all important beer drinking (in my case, cider or wine drinking!) that should occur while you prep the food!

Step 3:  When everything is prepped, heat up some olive oil in a decent size pot (I think mine was a 6 quart).  Medium heat.  Saute the onion first, until it starts to sweat a little.  Then add the garlic and continue to saute.  Sprinkle with a little salt.  Right before I add the escarole, I add my crushed red pepper to help bring out the flavor.

Step 4:  Once the aromatics have sweat a little (onions will be getting translucent), you can add your escarole.  As you can see, it will cook down quite a bit.  

Step 5:  When the escarole is starting to soften, add your beans, and your stock.  Some recipes suggest adding a chunk of parmesan while you simmer, but that's optional...it adds some extra salt and flavor.  Cover the pot, and bring to a simmer.

Step 6:  Let it simmer for a while.  Add some salt and pepper, at whatever level you prefer.  Taste it, taste it, taste it!  Add herbs if you feel like it needs them!  You want the beans to warm through, and flavors to meld together.  It shouldn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes maximum.  You don't want a big bowl of mush.  In the meantime, grate your parmesan.  I'm sure a nice romano would work here too.

Tada!  Finished and ready to eat!

I had never made escarole for my husband before this dinner, and he enjoyed it.  If you like collards, kale, or other greens, you'll probably like it.  This is just one of many ways you can use it!  Experiment!